Posts under ‘Prelude FLNG Project’

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Dispute stops cargoes at Shell’s huge floating LNG plant

Angela Macdonald-Smith: Senior resources writer
Updated Jun 28, 2022 – 10.36pm, first published at 9.22pm

Shell’s monster floating LNG project off the north-west coast has cancelled cargoes until at least mid-July amid an escalating industrial dispute, tightening the supply of gas in the already-stretched global market.

Trade unions represented through the Offshore Alliance say Shell has threatened union negotiators with its intention to shut down the facility amid the deteriorating situation.

Australian Workers’ Union national secretary Daniel Walton described the threat as “insane” given the national gas crisis, and said the energy major was trying to bully the nation into agreeing to its “hardline” demands.

However the energy multinational insists it is union bans that are behind the likely shutdown, restricting its ability to operate the complex facility and offload cargoes. Prelude supplies LNG to the export market, not to Australian energy users.

A Shell spokeswoman said the group has notified customers that it is cancelling cargoes until at least the middle of next month due to the impact of the industrial action.

The dispute centres around a new collective agreement under negotiation between Shell and the unions, for workers that industry sources say are paid an average of $250,000-$280,000, and in some cases more through bonuses, allowances and overtime. read more

WAtoday

Shell’s Prelude gas ship hit by safety, crewing and industrial problems

By Peter Milne: June 10, 2022 — 5.00am

Shell is running its $23 billion Prelude floating LNG plant with critical positions filled by crew who are not fully qualified, and more than 200 safety alarms out of action, ahead of industrial action due to start on Friday.

Gas exports recommenced from the world’s largest floating vessel just two months ago after it was shut down for four months following a complete power failure in December that the offshore safety regulator said could have led to a “catastrophic failure”. read more

energynewsbulletin.net: 

Prelude potentially facing another shut down 

Helen Clark: Editor: 9 June 2022

Australia’s Fair Work Commission has approved the action as unions hammer out a new enterprise bargaining agreement with Shell. The protected industrial action runs until June 21.

The 3.6 million tonne vessel sold four cargoes through May and has varied contracts including with Korea’s Kogas. Other cargoes go into Shell’s wider LNG portfolio. This comes as the global gas market tightens amid far higher demand for LNG from Europe as it tries to swiftly pivot from Russian pipe gas. read more

energynewsbulletin.net

Serious fire dangers at Prelude FLNG

THE union representing offshore oil and gas workers at Shell Australia’s Prelude FLNG facility have outlined serious safety concerns to the safety regulator, warning employees’ lives are at stake because fire suppression systems are not working.

The Offshore Alliance – part of the Australian Workers Union and Maritime Union of Australia – lodged the complaint yesterday which revealed that over 200 smoke detectors on the facility were not relaying to the control room and workers would not be aware of an explosion or fire at the giant floating gas project. read more

ENERGY VOICE

Shell sends ‘thug’ to stop industrial strike action on Prelude FLNG, says labour union

Production at Shell’s (LON:SHEL) Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility offshore Western Australia may soon be affected by industrial strike action after the Offshore Alliance issued the supermajor with a notice of protected industrial action starting 10 June.

Production at Shell’s (LON:SHEL) Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility offshore Western Australia may soon be affected by industrial strike action after the Offshore Alliance issued the supermajor with a notice of protected industrial action starting 10 June.

In response to the formal notice served by lawyers representing the Offshore Alliance, a labor union, as well as the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), issued on 30 May, Shell has “now resorted to industrial thuggery in a desperate effort to try and stop protected industrial action on Prelude,” the Offshore Alliance claimed in a post on Facebook today.

“One of the Shell leads, who has been parachuted onto Prelude, is throwing his weight around like he’s some sort of big king dick…this self-styled hero tough guy has been doing his best to intimidate some of the younger female tech’s by demanding they tell him whether they are in the Union and whether they intend to take Protected Industrial Action,” claimed the Offshore Alliance.

“Shell’s senior management need to pull this idiot into line as the Offshore Alliance will bang both him and Shell into the Federal Court for breach of Freedom of Association provisions if he doesn’t pull his head in. Pull off your management thugs, Shell,” added the union. read more

The Sydney Morning Herald

Shell, Seven Group invest $3.5b in Crux gas for Prelude as unions take action

By Peter Milne: May 30, 2022 — 4.37pm

Shell and Seven Group have sanctioned the $US2.5 billion ($3.5 billion) Crux gas field off Western Australia’s Kimberley coast to supply the world’s largest vessel – Shell’s Prelude floating LNG plant – on the same day unions gave notice of industrial action.

The announcement comes one week into the prime ministership of Anthony Albanese, who said he wants to be remembered for action on climate and is under pressure from the Greens to stop all new fossil fuel projects.

Wood Mackenzie analyst Michael Song said without Crux, before 2030 the 488 metre-long Prelude would not have sufficient gas to operate at full capacity.

Prelude was meant to be the world’s first floating LNG plant and a prototype for Shell to deploy globally to develop gas in remote areas that would otherwise be stranded.

Construction of Crux will start this year with the first gas from an unmanned platform with five wells expected to flow in 2027.

The disappointing Concerto reservoir is another setback for a project that has fallen well short of most metrics that determine a successful project. read more

abc.net.au

Oil giant Shell feels heat over giant $21 billion Prelude floating LNG plant

By energy reporter Daniel Mercer

Key points:

• The Prelude project has been beset by cost and time blowouts, as well as technical problems
• A lobbyist and former engineer says safety issues are the biggest concern
• There are claims Prelude may never pay royalties for the gas it processes off Australia’s north-west coast

When Dutch-Anglo oil giant Shell decided to build a massive floating gas factory known as Prelude in 2011, it was billed as the dawn of a new era for the industry.

Australia was midway through a once-in-a-lifetime $300 billion splurge that would make the country the world’s biggest producer of super-chilled, shipped gas.

Floating gas plants were supposed to be the logical evolution, vacuuming up gas wherever they went and making fortunes for shareholders and taxpayers. read more

CITYA.M.

Shell restarts LNG shipments from giant floating gas site

NICHOLAS EARL: TUESDAY 12 APRIL 2022

Shell has restarted shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Prelude, its massive floating plant off the coast of Western Australia.

This follows operations at the world’s largest floating object being halted for four months after a fire and safety scare.

The oil and gas giant has confirmed the Prelude facility resumed shipping cargos after demonstrating to regulators that it was safe to do so. read more

ArgusMedia.com

Shell restarts shipments from Australia’s Prelude FLNG

Shipments from Shell’s 3.6mn t/yr Prelude floating LNG (FLNG) facility in the Browse basin offshore Western Australia resumed on 10 April, with the first cargo departing at 21:50 Australian Western Standard Time (13:50 GMT).

Australia’s offshore security regulator the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (Nopsema) gave approval for shipments to resume last month following a suspension since early December after a fire broke out at the Prelude FLNG facility.

“LNG cargoes have resumed from Shell’s Prelude FLNG facility,” Shell said.

Shell operates Prelude with a 67.5pc stake. Japanese upstream firm Inpex has a 17.5pc stake in the facility, while South Korean state-owned importer Kogas and Taiwanese state-controlled CPC own 10pc and 5pc, respectively.

Prelude has been dogged by production issues since it began shipments in June 2019. Production at the plant was halted in February 2020 because of technical issues and resumed around 11 months later in January 2021. read more

Reuters

Shell resumes shipping LNG from Prelude off Australia

MELBOURNE, April 11 (Reuters) – Shell Plc (SHEL.L) said on Monday it has resumed shipping liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its Prelude floating LNG facility off northwest Australia after a four-month shutdown due to a major power failure.

A cargo completed loading and left the site on Sunday night, a Shell spokesperson said, declining to disclose the destination.

“Our focus at Prelude remains on the long-term and delivering safe, sustained and reliable performance into the future,” Shell said in a statement. read more

Nasdaq

Shell (SHEL) Gets Nod to Restart Production at Prelude FLNG

The British oil and gas giant, Shell Plc SHEL, recently got regulatory clearances and approvals to restart production at its Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility at Browse Basin in Australia. The go-ahead signal came after Australia’s offshore petroleum supervisory body removed all restraints and cleared the route for restart after production was halted at the facility in December 2021 due to a fire incident and a power outage. read more

Email from John Donovan to Mr Andy Hacking, Branch President Australian Workers Union.

Dear Mr Hacking

I am writing to you in your capacity as AWU WA branch Secretary and spokesman for the Offshore Alliance representing many Shell Prelude FLNG workers.

As you will be aware Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is driving natural gas prices ever higher amid a potential shortage of gas in many markets. 

Will the energy crisis cause reckless employers like Shell to endanger the lives of their workers, some of whom, as I have already mentioned, are your members?

There does seem to be a recipe for potential disaster arising from the controversial Prelude project – a risky experiment that has already survived a series of extremely dangerous close calls ending in a shutdown – being restarted prematurely, driven by greed to take advantage of a crisis situation. 

I pose this question in view of the publication of recent articles starting with one published by my website, royaldutchshellplc.com in collaboration with Bill Campbell, the retired HSE Group Auditor of Shell International. 

Please glance through our recent article:

The Hindenburg, The Titanic and Shell Prelude FLNG

SUCH ARTICLES GIVE CAUSE FOR CONCERN IF EXPERT WARNINGS TO THE AUTHORITIES HAVE NOT BEEN GIVEN THE CONSIDERATION THEY DESERVE? FURTHER INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE ON REQUEST. EXTENSIVE TROUBLING INFORMATION HAS BEEN SUPPLIED TO THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT AND NOPSEMA. I DOUBT THAT ANY OTHER VENTURE HAS HAD SO MANY WARNINGS OVER MANY YEARS. IF GOD FORBID, THERE IS A DISASTROUS EVENT, ALL OF THE WARNINGS WILL BE SCRUTINISED IN AN INEVITABLE PUBLIC ENQUIRY.  

I am sure Mr Campbell would be happy to answer any questions you may have in regards to the information he has supplied to various interested parties. read more

The Hindenburg, The Titanic and Shell Prelude FLNG

By John Donovan

A huge bomb the size of several aircraft carriers welded together is floating off the coast of Australia. It was never meant to be a bomb but is now deemed to be so dangerous, susceptible to an explosion, that it is on emergency shutdown after a fire. 

This article is written in collaboration with a retired Shell Global HSE Consultant Mr Bill Campbell. For several years we have been jointly ringing alarm bells about the Shell Prelude FLNG project. read more

ENB 

More Prelude power issues “foreseeable and credible” 

23 Feb 2022

During an early February earnings call Shell boss Ben van Beurden called the ongoing problems “teething troubles” but confirmed the $20 billion-plus vessel would be offline through the first quarter of 2022.
The company was ordered by the offshore regulator, NOPSEMA, to shut down the facility in December, following a small fire caused by an electrical fault which tripped the facility’s main power, forcing the company to use backup diesel generators and evacuate staff. read more

COMING SOON: The Hindenburg, The Titanic and Shell Prelude FLNG (in collaboration with Bill Campbell)

**********************************************************

upstreamonline.com article

Shell’s Prelude FLNG to remain offline for most of Q1: Ben van Beurden

By Josh Lewis in Perth: 4 FEB 2022

Prelude has been offline since an electrical fire in December last year resulted in a complete loss of power at the facility, with a subsequent report into the incident suggesting the FLNG vessel was at risk of ‘catastrophic failure’ as a result of the fire and subsequent power outages. read more

More information here about John Donovan (above), his website royaldutchshellplc.com and his main contributor on Shell safety issues, Mr Bill Campbell. 

Links here to several hundred articles and features by a host of publishers including the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters etc., containing references to Donovan Shell focussed websites, my late father or me, or in respect of Shell safety issues, our valued contributor, Mr Campbell.

Also citations by name or link references in over 100 books. read more